On August 28th
1975, Roger ARMSTRONG brought the five COUNT BISHOPS in
PATHWAY Studio, in North London. The studio was built by Mike
FINESILVER with his royalties from Arthur Brown's "Fire" which
he wrote.

As described by Roger in the liner notes of the "Speedball Plus
Eleven" CD, released in 1995, the session was " hot, cool, and ...
prolific". Roger remembers that they recorded 12 tracks in no less
than 6 hours.

At
about 11 that night, Ted CARROLL arrived with some alcohol and
assistance. They played the tape for him and "generated such
enthusiasm that he felt asleep" remembers Roger. The band cut
another 3 tracks. The session run through into the early hours of the
morning.

Barry FARMER was the engineer. The session was
co-produced by The COUNT BISHOPS and Roger ARMSTRONG.

As it was so difficult to
make a choice, 5 tracks were remixed in September 1975, again at PATHWAY
Studio, and again with Barry FARMER as engineer. From these 5
tracks, Ted CARROLL and Roger ARMSTRONG decided to exclude one song ("Cry To Me").

They launch their newly
formed CHISWICK label with those 4 remaining tracks issued as an E.P. (an
Extended Play is generally a 4 tracks single). This E.P. is better known
as the "Speedball" E.P.

These 4 tracks are "Route
66", "Ain't Got You", "Beautiful
Delilah" and "Teenage Letter". The sound is raw
and rough, the music rocks, and the feeling is similar to the early ROLLING
STONES albums. As Jim GREEN wrote in the Trouser Press, (November
1978):

"The "Speedball" E.P. sounded like early STONES records. If
the STONES hadn't done all of those songs, it sounded as though
they could have - and since them didn't - The COUNT BISHOPS
did". But Johnny GUITAR admits that this STONES
influence "led to a sort of typecasting; we learned really fast
that we had to get our own sound together".

This debut CHISWICK release
came out in November 1975, being sold by Ted CARROLL at the back of
his Peugeot car and by Larry DEBAY who was the band manager. The first pressing (1 000 copies) was issued with a
glossy sleeve and had sold out by the start of 1976.

This EP was the starting
point of a new era for independant record labels in Great Britain.

If you are lucky, you'll can find copies with the opening side on the top
of the sleeve, and others with the opening side on the right.
There's also a French pressing issued by BARCLAY in 1977 (BARCLAY 740
002).

The remaining 5th
remixed track ("Cry To Me") stayed for years on the
CHISWICK/ACE shelves until the release of the "Speedball Plus
Eleven" CD, in 1995.

Early 1976, things went
wrong: Mike SPENSER had not the same views as the others about the
way The COUNT BISHOPS should sound. He was into anarchy and chaos
and his behavior fitted well with punk. The other guys in the band just
wanted to play their guitar and make music. They didn't want to create a
revolution.

They parted company and Mike
went on to form Mike SPENSER and the CANNIBALS and a few years
later, not surprisingly, was considered as the "grandfather of
TRASH". He has released many great trash records.